Venus goes down swinging at Auckland classic
Wildcard Michael Venus fell agonisingly short of pulling off a shock upset over sixth seed Feliciano Lopez in the first round of the ASB Classic on Monday.
Two years after beating Colombia’s Alejandro Gonzalez – the first win by a Kiwi over an overseas player at the tournament in more than a decade – history almost repeated for Venus as he won the first set and almost took the second to claim another memorable victory.
However, the Spaniard’s experience shone through in the end, scraping home 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
There were plenty of eyebrows raised when Venus, a full-time doubles player, received a wildcard ahead of top-ranked singles players Finn Tearney and Rubin Statham.
The 29-year-old is not even ranked inside the top 1000 in the world and no one expected him to get close to the 28th-ranked Lopez.
But tournament director Karl Budge can feel somewhat justified in his decision following his spirited display.
Venus mixed sublime shots with gritty resolve and it was not until eighth game of the third set when Lopez edged clear of his opponent.
And despite doing his best to allow Venus back in the match by giving up three break points, he gathered his composure to seal the contest in one hour, 47 minutes.
Lopez could yet meet another Kiwi in the second round, with the 35-year-old set to meet the winner of Artem Sitak’s match against Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.
Sitak is the last remaining New Zealander in the main draw after qualifier Finn Tearney lost 6-3, 7-5 to Dutchman Robin Haase earlier in the day.
Lopez looked strong on service early but it was Venus who broke first when he forced an error from the Spaniard to take a 4-2 lead.
The local favourite grew in confidence from that point, powering through his next service game and in a tense ninth game, held his nerve on the third set point to give the crowd hope of an upset. Venus showed no signs of letting up in the second set, with Lopez surviving a break point in the opening game.
Landing more than 60 per cent of his first serves throughout the set, Venus had little trouble staying with the five-time ATP Tour winner.
He forced two break points in the ninth game, setting one up with a brilliant forehand down the line, but Lopez was up to the task to take a 5-4 lead.
The tables turned in the next game, though, as three-straight unforced errors from Venus gave Lopez a golden chance to level match.
Amazingly, he saved all three set points but a fourth proved one to many, spoiling all the earlier hard work with a wayward backhand.
The third set stayed on serve until the eighth game and that is when Lopez made his move his, breaking Venus to serve for the match.
Fellow New Zealander Tearney became the first Kiwi since 2008 to make it through qualifying at the Auckland event.